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Sabra Nickas, co-owner of Sullivan's Metropolitan Grill, walks through the restaurant before lunch as tables are set for a day of business. The restaurant reached its 20th anniversary. Ken Ruinard / staff

Sullivan's Metropolitan Grill in Anderson was featured in the July 2001 Wall Street Journal, which owner Bill Nickas says helped boost attention to the downtown restaurant. Bill and Sabra Nickas, along with staff celebrate the 20th anniversary of the downtown Anderson restaurant this February. Ken Ruinard / staff

Bill Nickas, co-owner of Sullivan's Metropolitan Grill in Anderson, talks about celebrating a 20-year milestone with good employees and a supportive community at the downtown Anderson builing, which was previously known for being a hardware store. Ken Ruinard / staff

Bill Nickas, left, co-owner of Sullivan's Metropolitan Grill in Anderson, with Carolyn Elaine Rouse, celebrates the 20th anniversary of the downtown Anderson restaurant. Rouse remembers when the building was a hardware store, and has been an employee for all of the 20 years the Nickas family has operated it. Ken Ruinard / staff

Sabra Nickas, co-owner of Sullivan's Metropolitan Grill, makes cheesecakes and cakes, also takes care of many other restaurant items including a display of flowers at the front door in downtown Anderson in February. The restaurant reached its 20th anniversary. Ken Ruinard / staff

Carolyn Elaine Rouse, left, stands by Josh Crenshaw, right, executive chef for Sullivan's Metropolitan Grill in Anderson. Rouse, an employee with the restaurant for all the years it has been open, joins in celebrating the 20th anniversary of the downtown Anderson restaurant she calls the best. Ken Ruinard / staff

Carolyn Elaine Rouse, with Sullivan's Metropolitan Grill in Anderson for all of the 20 years it has been open, talks about the joy of working for the restaurant she calls the best in Anderson. Ken Ruinard / staff

Bill Nickas, co-owner of Sullivan's Metropolitan Grill in Anderson, talks about celebrating a 20-year milestone with good employees and a supportive community at the downtown Anderson builing, which was previously known for being a hardware store. Ken Ruinard / staff

Co-owner Bill Nickas said he and his wife, Sabra, fell in love with the building when they saw it. They’ve expanded and renovated, but they’ve kept many things the same: the floors, staircase, columns and parts of the wood in the kitchen.

They even kept Sullivan's in the name, adding Metropolitan because his grandfather had a restaurant named Metropolitan.

They moved to Anderson to start Sullivan’s after graduating from culinary school in Charleston. They were one of three businesses Nickas remembers being open downtown.

“There was nothing,” he said. “On this whole block, there was not another business even open at that point.”

Bill Nickas, co-owner of Sullivan's Metropolitan Grill in Anderson, talks about celebrating a 20-year milestone with good employees and a supportive community at the downtown Anderson builing, which was previously known for being a hardware store. (Photo11: Ken Ruinard / staff)

Over the past 20 years, the Nickases have seen downtown Anderson go through different phases of growth and revitalization.

“I feel like we’ve been a big part of downtown revitalization," Nickas said. "I think that’s kind of how it works: Somebody’s got to go first, and we did and we had some success, and then we saw another business.”

Mayor Terence Roberts agreed that Sullivan’s was one of downtown’s first restaurants, saying the Nickases took a “leap of faith.”

“The vibrancy of downtown has coincided with Bill’s business and the city’s growth,” Roberts said. “It was downtown’s first attempt at fine dining so it filled a particular niche.”

Nickas emphasizes that it hasn’t necessarily been an easy 20 years. During the Great Recession, the couple was forced to close the restaurant for about seven weeks until someone came in and bought the building from them.

Even with 20 years in the same location and steady clientele, Bill Nickas doesn’t feel like Sullivan’s can be considered an Anderson institution yet. But they’re getting there.

“I just didn’t want to have a restaurant, I wanted it to be an institution, a staple in the community, and we’re not there yet, but we’re getting there,” he said. “Twenty years is certainly getting on the cusp of that. I feel like we need another five to 10 years under our belt.”

Carolyn Elaine Rouse, with Sullivan's Metropolitan Grill in Anderson for all of the 20 years it has been open, talks about the joy of working for the restaurant she calls the best in Anderson. (Photo11: Ken Ruinard / staff)

While the Nickases have no plans to open any other restaurants, they’re working on building out a catering kitchen in the Palmetto Building so they can expand their catering business.

Carolyn Rouse, 67, has been working at Sullivan’s part time since it opened. She left the salad line at the now-closed 1109 South Main Restaurant looking for a change of pace in 1999. She didn’t think she would have stayed at Sullivan's as long as she has.

“This is a family here,” she said. “Once you come into Sullivan’s the owners treat you like family.”

A praline cheese cake, one of the many homemade for Sullivan's Metropolitan Grill in Anderson.(Photo11: Ken Ruinard / staff)

She remembers all the changes the building has gone through from a flower shop in the building that’s now a private dining room, and a shoeshine stand outside of the restaurant that's now in Cahaly's Custom Clothing.

Rouse retired from her full-time job in 2006, and has no plans of leaving Sullivan’s in the foreseeable future.

“I’m going to work as long as I can because I don’t like staying at home every day," she said.